| January 17, 2005 Unanswered
Questions
[Website: among others, the American use of the
Israeli flag as torture] Alberto Gonzales
will likely be confirmed. But that won't stop the
widening scandal over Gitmo
[Guantánamo]
detainees By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek Jan. 17 issue - Ibraham Al
Qosi's stories seemed fairly outlandish when
they first surfaced last fall. In a lawsuit, Al
Qosi, a Sudanese accountant apprehended after 9/11
on suspicions of ties to Al Qaeda, charged that he
and other detainees at Guantánamo Bay had
been subjected to bizarre forms of humiliation and
abuse by U.S. military inquisitors. Al Qosi claimed they were strapped to the floor
in an interrogations center known as the Hell Room,
wrapped in Israeli flags, taunted by female
interrogators who rubbed their bodies against them
in sexually suggestive ways, and left alone in
refrigerated cells for hours with deafening music
blaring in their ears. Back then, Pentagon
officials dismissed Al Qosi's allegations as the
fictional rantings of a hard-core terrorist.  But
in recent weeks a stack of declassified government
documents has given new credence to many of the
claims of abuse at Guantanamo. The documents are
also raising fresh questions about the Bush
administration's handling of detainees at a time
when a prime architect of that policy, White House
counsel Alberto Gonzales, right, is
facing a Senate confirmation vote as the
president's nominee to be attorney general.
Many of the documents come from an unexpected
source: the FBI. As part of a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit brought by the American
Civil Liberties Union, the bureau has released
internal e-mails and correspondence recording what
their own agents witnessed at Gitmo. Coupled with
accounts from other agencies such as the Defense
Intelligence AgencyÐalso released as part of
the FOIA lawsuitÐthe FBI reports amount to a
powerful case that many of the scenes alleged by Al
Qosi and other Gitmo detainees may actually have
happened. (Al Qosi is still in Gitmo, facing
charges before a military tribunal.) And the
reports suggest that the interrogation scandal is
not going away any time soon, even if Gonzales is
confirmed, as expected. Many of the FBI accounts came from
conscience-stricken agents troubled by what they
had witnessed. - One agent reported seeing a detainee sitting
on the floor of an interrogation cell with an
Israeli flag draped around him while he was
bombarded by loud music and a strobe
lightÐalmost exactly what Al Qosi had
alleged.
- Another reported seeing detainees chained
hand and foot in fetal positions, in barren
cells with no chair, food or water.
- In one account that seemed to parallel the
sickening scenes from Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq,
an FBI agent reported the way in which a female
U.S. Army sergeant sexually humiliated a
shackled male prisoner during Ramadan and even
"grabbed his genitals."
Pentagon officials acknowledge that, frustrated
by detainees' refusal to talk, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld had approved "aggressive"
interrogation techniques to be used at Gitmo. But
last week, stunned by the new disclosures, Gen.
Bantz Craddock, chief of the U.S. Southern
Command -- which runs Gitmo -- ordered a full-scale
inquiry into the FBI agents' allegations, which
appear to go far beyond anything authorized.
Craddock wants to know why allegations from
seemingly credible government agents had not come
to the U.S. military's attention sooner. After hearing of the FBI memos,
NEWSWEEK has learned, Sens.
Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy
fired off angry letters to FBI Director Robert
Mueller demanding to know why he failed to
disclose his own agents' complaints when they
questioned him about Gitmo in a hearing last
May. Feinstein last week called Mueller's evasive
answers at the time "gobbledygook." When her
comment was reported on
NEWSWEEK's Web site, Mueller
called Feinstein to express regret that he hadn't
kept her better informed. As the inquiries
continue, he may not be the only U.S. government
official who has further explaining to
do. © 2005 Newsweek,
Inc. 
The
Face of war, mass murder and genocide
- Civilian casualties - families murdered in
their own homes - during the US assault on
Fallujah (Warning: graphic images)
Future
historians will deem the Bush regime's
enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect
of its cuurrent wars-
Ban
on torture overruled in Pentagon
-
Bush
Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws
-
Lawyer
for one guard claims picture shows his client
taking orders from others - will generals take
the stand?
-
Harvard
Law Professor Alan Dershowitz says U.S. Needs
Improved Torture Tactics
-
Okay for some "Bundeswehrprofessor
[Michael Wolffsohn, jüdisch,
Israeli-Bürger] räsoniert
über Vorzüge der Folter": German
professor Michael Wolffsohn calls for use of
torture | Summoned
before his minister
-
Expanding the Taguba report: Israel's
role in training US army in torture
techniques
-
Danish government accuses British troops
Danish
medics witnessed Iraqi prisoner die after
interrogation
-
Reuters
agency released shocking details of US torture
of three of its journalists
-
Israel's
involvement in Iraq: has torture experts at Abu
Ghraib Jail
-
Israeli
medical association: OK to break fingers of
Palestinian prisoners during
interrogation
- Amnesty International reports,
Israel Supreme Court to Rule on Torture and
Holding of Lebanese Hostages as Pawns
-
Human rights lawyers argue that Israel's
torture
of Palestinians is illegal (but sometimes
necessary)
-
Lipstadt's Witness Bernie Farber is Revealed
as Torture Apologist
-
 Israeli
torture of Palestinian prisoners seized in
the notorious Khiam prison in southern
Lebanon-
Sydney
Morning Herald reports: US creating torture
centers in non-US locations
"It allows us to get information from terrorists
in a way we can't do on US soil."
-
Robert Fisk reports: Inside
an Israeli torturers' den, manacles lie
abandoned
- Danish
opposition to the appointment of Israeli torture
chief, Ambassador Carmi Gillon (right)
-
Torture
of children by USA's closest allies
-
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